a tidy bank cut last year

Although I am about two months behind my peat-cutting mentor, who appears to have a stack at home to see him through the apocalypse, I am just about to bring the final batch back to the croft.

 

In truth, the penultimate batch. The last peats cut at the end of June, soggy and sad, remain propped up in their mini house of cards. They may never dry but then the quality of the peat at the top end of the bank is quite rubbish anyway.

the last cut (slow to dry)

The good, black ones come from further down the cutting. To repeat what I wrote before, the process is labour intensive: cutting and tossing onto the bank (starting in May, for me), returning to form the mini stacks (putting the dry side away from the weather), coming back to shift them up the bank to larger stacks upon pallets (July), and finally carting them home for their resting place before use. (Aug-Sept).


 

 



drying on pallets

 

We’ve cut about 50% to 70% more this year. But I still haven’t reached the bottom end of the bank. It will take some work to restore it to a suitable condition to be cut––scraping moss, fungal growth, and weeds from the bank before one can get a clean shot at the peat.

 

Next year.


The first cut (not the deepest)